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Samuel Norton
Warden Samuel Norton, simply known as Samuel Norton, is the main antagonist in the 1982 Stephen King book Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, and its 1994 film adaptation The Shawshank Redemption. He is a corrupt and religious warden of the Shawshank penitentiary. He was portrayed by , who also portrayed Leland Owlsley in the first season of the Netflix series Daredevil. Biography Samuel Norton starts out as a deeply religious man when Andy Dufresne arrives in 1947. As the year's pass, he notices a lot of potential in Andy and gives him protection from the guards, library access, and helping inmates get their GED's in return for aiding him in laundering money from kickbacks and his scams. In 1965, a young thief named Tommy Williams comes along. Tommy reveals to both Red and Andy who truly killed his wife and that Andy was set up, proving his innocence. Andy tells this to the warden, but he becomes angered and sentences Andy to the hole for one month and has Tommy killed in fear of losing his money cleaner. He threatens to take away everything from Andy if he quits by torching the library, removing him from being protected from the guards and moved from his cell into appalling conditions and gives him another month to think about it. However, Andy then succeeds in escaping through a tunnel he had been digging for the past 20 years (27 years in the book). Under the name Randall Stevens (the identity he used to store all of Warden Norton's money), Andy not only drains him of all his ill-gotten gains but also delivers a book exposing Norton and Hadley's corruption and their killing of Tommy to the Daily Bugle. The police then come to Shawshank to arrest them both. They succeed in arresting Captain Hadley, but Norton wasn't going to go quietly. Loading up a gun he kept in his drawer, he prepares to take as many police officers down with him as possible as soon as they entered his office. But then he becomes so bewildered by the thought of how the one inmate who ever escaped his prison (and the one he truly valued) ruined everything for him, he decides to turn the gun on himself and literally blows his own brains out. While what Norton was exactly thinking when the bullet passed through his head is unknown, Red likes to believe that it was how Andy Dufresne ever got the best of him. That was his fate in the movie. In the book, however, Norton escapes arrest by resigning from his post. He isn't as cruel in the book, as he had Tommy transferred to another prison to keep him quiet instead of having him murdered, and didn't force Andy to be in solitary confinement for two months. He is also not as present in the book, given he doesn't take over Shawshank as warden until later in the story. In fact, within the film, he is a combination of the different wardens in the novel that took over Shawshank before he did. Gallery wnorton.jpeg|Norton when he first appears in the film. young warden.jpeg Andy Escape.jpeg|Norton discovering how Andy Dufresne escaped. Warden-norton-shawshawnk.jpeg|Norton left in shock after he's been discovered. Norton Death.jpeg|Norton about to shoot himself. Navigation pl:Samuel Norton Category:Corrupt Officials Category:Liars Category:Cheater Category:Thief Category:Dark Priests Category:Murderer Category:Fanatics Category:Movie Villains Category:Stephen King Villains Category:Book Villains Category:Master Orator Category:Torturer Category:Sadists Category:Abusers Category:Hypocrites Category:Gaolers Category:Suicidal Category:Friend of a Hero Category:Traitor Category:Destroyer of Innocence Category:Status Dependent on Version Category:Conspirators Category:Master of Hero Category:Cowards Category:Control Freaks Category:Failure-Intolerant Category:Sophisticated Category:Faux Affably Evil Category:Lawful Evil Category:Power Hungry Category:Type Dependent on Version Category:Deceased Category:Provoker Category:Pure Evil Category:Spouses Category:Non-Action Category:Blackmailers Category:Paranoid Category:Mongers Category:Betrayed Category:Arrogant Category:Charismatic Category:Wrathful Category:Greedy Category:Evil Vs. Evil Category:Homicidal Category:Psychopath Category:Criminals Category:Live Action Villains Category:Male Category:Tyrants Category:Elderly Category:Archenemy